Left, right, doesn't make a lick of difference to religious totalitarians. More important is to split the US from allies. And playing to their natural left tendancies and our natural right tendancies is the obvious way to do that.
Dude, read your tagline. You can't back down from a bully. Just can't. Can't give in to blackmail. Just makes it worse. I know you don't want to hear that, but it's too bad. It's true.